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Scott Prueter
1,117 PointsWhy do you suggest/tell us to buy our site from finally?
I simply signed up for a site on wordpress and got a mysite.wordpress.com site for free. Is this okay? I noticed that my dashboard does not have the built in plugin installer. Why don't I see the plugin installer?
4 Answers
Alice Spencer
12,273 PointsThere are some differences between wordpress.com and wordpress.org This page from the support site describes the differences. But in short, you can't do plugins on wp.com, but you can on a self-hosted wp.org install. This page explains the plugin functionality on wp.com sites.
ETA: There's nothing wrong with a wp.com site, you just won't have the functionality and control that you will with a self-hosted wp.org site. Which is great for someone who just wants a nice looking blog, but not so much for a developer/designer.
Zac Gordon
Treehouse Guest TeacherIn this course we use the version of WordPress found at wordpress.org not wordpress.com, which you signed up for. Somethings are similar, but many are different. Check out our course on WordPress.com to learn more about WordPress.com sites specifically since they're a bit different than .org sites.
Scott Prueter
1,117 PointsThanks staff,
How come you go through this "finally" website instead of going through the installation process from wordpress.org? I quickly reviewed the download process for wordpress.org and it seems very confusing. Does TreeHouse have a video on wordpress.org installation?
Kevin Korte
28,149 PointsYou bet.
http://teamtreehouse.com/library/how-to-make-a-website-with-wordpress
It's the very first lesson. Many web hosts offer one-click Wordpress installs on your hosted server, there is also the manual install infamously named the Five-minute install which is the method I prefer.
You only install wordpress using one way or the other, not both, as they both get you to the same net result; a fresh install of the entire default Wordpress CMS on your server.
Kevin Korte
28,149 PointsThis link will give you more details: http://en.support.wordpress.com/plugins/
But basically, wordpress.com does not allow you to install any and every plugin. Wordpress.org is the self hosted version of wordpress, and that would allow you to have the plugins option and install whatever you want.
While wordpress.com is hosted for you, and can be free, it's features and functionality are limited.
Scott Prueter
1,117 PointsThank you Kevin!
jemelleesantos
3,495 PointsI'm not sure if this is relevant to the question, but I just got my domain and hosting site from webhostingforstudents and I tried to install it to my wordpress but nothing happened. Do I need to have wordpress.org instead of wordpress.com?
Henry Goh
20,201 PointsHi Jemellee,
Have you tried accessing via http://domain.com/wp-admin?
(domain.com) as in the domain you registered.
Best regards,
Henry
jemelleesantos
3,495 PointsHenry Goh Ah! thank you! I forgot about that part. It's working now. Thank you!
Scott Prueter
1,117 PointsScott Prueter
1,117 PointsThank you so much Alice!